The farm temporarily lost a hand... **Links to Graphic Pics**

[dewey]

Wow, what happened 3 weeks ago doesn't sound like any fun, but I'm glad you're healing up good and will be free soon!

 

[kuntrygirl]

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x2

 

[Avalon1984]

My husband lost the finger on his right hand to an engine accident when his brother "overturned" the engine and he had his hand on the belt. They tried to reattach it but it ended up dying off. Wishing you a speedy recovery. i heard it is extremely painful. Keep that hand above your heart!

 

[Scottingitup]

Well I am not totally free yet - moved on to a removable splint. Therapy has started- it is going ok. hurts real bad though.

2 more weeks until freedom.

 

[Avalon1984]

Quote:

I hope you'll feel better. Those injuries hurt the most.

 

[Mamma_Duck04]

Ouch! & BTW love the pics- what is it with guys & injury pics?

When hurricane Isabel came through here end of August, we lost power the morning AFTER the whole thing had passed, &^$% power lines & neighbor with the menace tree! Mid-day the next day we got power back. Well our other neighbor is on another grid so we ran extension cords from his garage to keep our garage fridge & freezer going, so when we got power back, I went about cleaning the leaves off the kitchen floor & DH went to plug fridge & freezer back into the outlets.... Let's just say I hadn't even gotten the 2sqft entry space cleaned before he was back, holding his hand, "um, honey, I think I need your help" as blood's dripping down his arm...

Needless to say, when he was wiggling out the sandblast cabinet, in order to reach the fridge cord/outlet, his hand slipped & went through the glass lid

the lacerations looked clean enough, but got my heart pumping because of the black blood pouring out of one. Thankfully it DID slow down en route to the hospital & 6hrs later he was stitched up... only to find out the following week that he had severed both extensor tendons to his trigger finger

He had hand surgery 10 days post injury to reattach everything, has a cool upside-down question mark on the back of his hand now lol. We stared down at 7wks of strictly-splinted recovery time, we're on week 5 now & have come to the conclusion I *really* just don't like military care providers (mostly the nurses- no offense), this strict, specific PT he was to receive wasn't given properly & they neglected to give him the home-care instructions he was supposed to have. Now the incision is fused to the tendon repair by scar tissue & we're having to try fixing that without further surgery...

PLEASE be careful with your repair & take it easy while you heal & many prayers for a full, successful recovery for you!!

For the record, I think we sent out his initial injury photos & post-op photos to more people than we did our first-born!!

 

[Scottingitup]

Here is where I stand as of wednesday. Both good and bad news - the good is I have my hand back. The new splint is there because the more i was able to bend the finger the less it would straighten - it is being held there for a week or two to get everything back where it should be. Mamma duck I TOTALLY feel your husbands pain. Therapy blows! I am using more meds now than from the surgery.

So far I have had great luck with my care, helps that my gfs mom is a nurse where I got the surgery done, then it turns out the cast tech is an old roommates step mom

Just the little bit of luck I needed.

Now to start working on the medical bills

oh and the good fingers are so atrophied it's crazy - stretching them is pure torture.

 

[Mamma_Duck04]

Oh gosh hon, yeah I hear ya! I just had to borrow a TENS unit from a friend so I could try stimulating his forearm muscles (wish I would have thought about it much earlier!). The atrophy is awful at this point (he's a hull tech = welder/pipe type man & relies on his hands, BOTH of them!) Due to the way the tendons are interconnected to the other fingers, where he cut them, his whole hand/wrist has been splinted to prevent over-extension & possibly rupture of the repair. *sigh* They've been doing bending exercises for the last 2wks and he's just now starting to regain his range of motion in his wrist, his fingers are all tight though. Not to mention whatever they do with his scar, plus the nightly hour-long massage I give him to try loosening that scar up... I'm just praying he gets full use in the end. He could still grip like normal before surgery, but had residual pain behind his wrist (where the tendons sprung back to) & couldn't straighten his finger like the rest. Now he can straighten it, but he can't grip, has severely limited range of motion from his wrist- all because the tendon is fused to the incision & it pretty much stops the extension.

I'm glad you have so many care providers close to you, I hope that helps provide a full recovery for you. I have to admit, seeing your initial photos, I'm quite shocked at how good your hand & finger look today! I'm so happy for you!!

FTR, the day we spent in the ER with DH's hand, there was another man that came in who tried amputating his finger with an axe (cutting down a broken limb from the storm), we saw him 2wks later, he effectively separated his finger right above the middle knuckle, though it wasn't a crush injury, & has had a great recovery aside from some minor loss of feeling at the fingertip- he too initially could bend it but couldn't straighten it back out. DH saw him in PT recently & he said it's gotten a lot better with the help of the finger splint & time.

Please keep updating, I would love to hear how your recovery progresses.